Irish researchers looking for family of deceased El Dorado veteran
EL DORADO — Sergeant Robert L. Graves Jr. went down with a World War II U.S. Army Air Force B-17 Bomber aircraft, as a crewman on June 1, 1944 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Knowledge of the El Dorado native Graves’ family has been requested from researchers in Northern Ireland.
Researchers Will Lindsay and Alfie Montgomery have studied this crash site in depth for years and contacted the El Dorado News-Times about locating Graves’ family.
Graves was born on August 28, 1917 and entered the service on November 9, 1942. His father’s name was Robert L. Graves Sr., and lived on Route 3, in El Dorado, Lindsay said in an email. Graves also has a son named Billy J. Graves, who was very young at the time of his father’s death.
Before enlisting, Graves worked for the McWilliams Hardware and Furniture Co. in El Dorado.
“Sergeant Graves is one of ten of the crew that Alfie and I have been researching for many years,” Lindsay said.
Graves is buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England. His position was gunner and he holds awards of Purple Heart, American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal.
The World War II aircraft took off from Gander, Newfoundland, en route to Valley Wales,
United Kingdom. Due to bad weather, the plane was forced to divert to Nutts Corner airfield, but got lost in low lying clouds and subsequently crashed into a hill known as “Cave Hill.” Cave Hill is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Montgomery started searching the crash site over 30 years ago with his father. In 1993, he found a wedding band with the inscription “Ruth – Larry 10-21-39.” The ring belonged to the radio operator on the plane with Graves. His name was Lawrence Dundon and Montgomery returned the ring to his
widow, Ruth, in Kentucky in 1996.
The story of Montgomery finding the ring was later turned into a Hollywood movie starring Shirley McClain called, “Closing The Ring.” The movie came out in 2007, which focused heavily on the plane crash that involved Graves.
Since then, Montgomery has been interested in finding out more about the other members of the crew.
Lindsay had been researching other American aircraft accidents, and made contact with Montgomery when researching the B-17 Bomber crash site. The two have been working together to find out as much information they
can about the members aboard the aircraft.
Today, there is a memorial on the hillside by the Bellevue Zoo, near the scene of the crash in Ireland. The monument is a concrete pillar with a dark plaque on the ground in front of it. The plaque has all 10 names of the crew members that went down with the plane.
“After all of these years, it would be great to put a face to his name,” Lindsay said.
If you have any information regarding the Graves family or knowledge of any relatives, please contact Kaitlyn Rigdon at the El Dorado News-Times. Email krigdon@eldoradonews.com.